Everyday Heroes the Astronomer

CEBU, Philippines - “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Physicist Albert Einstein had a universal touch, indeed, for when he dropped these lines, he was not only addressing the Western world, but the Cebuano as well.

Continued monitoring of every latest image of Jupiter’s “Red Jr.” preoccupies Cebuano astronomer Christopher Go, a Physics graduate of the University of San Carlos Class ’91. Through such pursuit, Go has represented Cebu excellently not only to the world, but also to the entire universe.

For his reports on the “Jupiter Section” of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers on Red Spot or Red Jr., Go got proper acknowledgment on “Sky and Telescope,” the essential magazine of Astronomy.

“NASA Science News,” also called on backyard astronomers, in its March 3, 2006 issue, to grab their telescopes as Jupiter is growing a new red spot. The report read: “Christopher Go of the Philippines photographed it on February 27th using an 11-inch telescope and a CCD camera.”

Two years after, Go received the ALPO 2008 Walter Haas Award for his “outstanding long-term contributions to planetary imaging in general and especially for his exceptional studies, including a major discovery of the planet Jupiter.”

Go has been an amateur astronomer since 1986 and an astrophotographer since 1990.

It was on February 24, 2006 that he discovered that the white spot Oval BA of Jupiter has turned red. The Oval BA is now officially called Red Spot or Red Jr. He then joined the team headed by Dr. Imke de Pater and Dr. Phil Marcus that used the Hubble Space Telescope to image Red Jr. on April and May 2006.

A “Sky and Telescope” report written by Robert Naeye and Alan MacRobert entitled “Jupiter’s New Red Spot” mentioned that the “color change was discovered on Feb. 24, 2006 by Philippine-based planetary imager Christopher Go who sent out an alert through the Jupiter Section of the ALPO.”

Go started out his planetary imaging during the last apparition of Halley’s Comet; this was when he was still in high school. He used a 10x40 binocular for four years.

In 1988, with a few friends, he started the University of San Carlos Astronomical Society. “I also went to Davao City to view my first total solar eclipse on March 18 of this year,” he wrote on his Website from which this writer has obtained permission to use his notes, as well as his photos.

On January 15, 1990, he received his first telescope – a Meade 2080LX5 Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope. But five years after, he sold his LX5 and acquired a Losmandy GM8 and a Celestron C8 along with an SBIG ST7 CCD camera. The following year, he ordered from a certain Peter Ceravolo an HD145 Maksutov Newtonian which he describes to be “wonderful.”

“In 1997, I placed my name in the now famous Astrophysics’ waiting list for an AP130 EDF refractor and got it the following year. Also in April 1997, I ordered an AP900QMD mount and got it one month later,” Go shared through his homepage.

Go got married in 1998, so he slowed down a bit after that, but not for long. In 2003, he began doing planetary imaging using a Toucam Pro Webcam, while deep sky imaging was done with either film or his SBIG ST7E CCD camera. On Feb. 2004, he took the plunge and bought a Coronado Solarmax 60 to observe the Venus Transit of 2004.

He referred to the Venus Transit experience as, in fact, a dream come true.

“Ever since I became an amateur astronomer, I have dreamed of witnessing a Venus Transit. After over 18 years of waiting, June 8, 2004 finally came. That was the first transit in 122 years,” he stressed.

On September 2006, he was accepted as a member of the American Astronomical Society and its Division for Planetary Sciences. He was also a recipient of the Presidential Order of Lakandula for his contribution to astronomy.

From a meteorology point of view, science can gain deeper understanding through Go’s finding which can be viewed as a climate change on Jupiter. “Or may tell something about internal energies and dynamics,” the NASA Science News pointed out.